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Thanks to IG report, FBI Had Its Worst Week in Modern History
by Kimberley A. Strassel: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has had its worst week in modern history. The Justice Department's inspector general found that the bureau had deceived a federal court and abused Americans' civil liberties. It was equally humiliating for the crew that gulled the FBI into its excesses: Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele and their media acolytes.
Fusion is the opposition-research firm the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign hired in 2016 to kneecap Donald Trump. Fusion in turn hired Mr. Steele, a British former spy, to compile the infamous "dossier" that the FBI used to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump aide Carter Page. Mr. Simpson, a onetime Wall Street Journal reporter, tapped a network of media buddies to provide the operation cover.
For years, Mr. Simpson spun a tale of how his firm—a team of "professionals"—had hired the "extremely well-regarded" former "lead Russianist at MI6." Mr. Simpson told the Senate in August 2017 that he wanted Mr. Steele to look into Mr. Trump's Russia business dealings. So it was "alarming" when Mr. Steele instead found a "political conspiracy" between the Trump campaign and Russia. Especially because Mr. Steele had "a sterling reputation as a person who doesn't exaggerate, doesn't make things up, doesn't sell baloney." The duo felt "obligated" to report this "national-security threat" to the FBI. The media would later assert that Mr. Steele had proved a valuable source to the FBI in the past; many claimed the FBI corroborated the dossier.
Now Mr. Horowitz has exposed the many fictions. His report notes that Mr. Steele was hired from the start to find Trump-Russia collusion. Mr. Steele told the inspector general that Mr. Simpson asked him in May 2016 to determine "whether there were any ties between the Russian government and Trump and his campaign" and "whether Russia was trying to achieve a particular election outcome." The timing is notable: Mr. Simpson was talking about collusion months before the FBI was—and even before Mr. Steele reported it to him. . . . Read More at Wall Street Journal
Kimberley Strassel @KimStrassel is a Fox News contributor and writes the Potomac Watch column for the Wall Street Journal where she is a member of the editorial board.
Tags: Kimberley Strassel, IG report, FBI Had Its Worst Week, in Modern History To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Forget Impeachment: This was President Trump's Big Week
by Newt Gingrich: Historians may look back and mark this week as a remarkable turning point in the Trump presidency.
While the liberal media was mesmerized by the dull Judiciary Committee meetings (so boring at least one Democrat was caught watching a golf match while seated in the committee) big things were happening.
However, they are the kind of big things which the adversarial media has a hard time covering intelligently. In fact, several of the big events of this past week will further discredit the news media and force it even more toward the defensive (more than half of Americans already don't trust the mass media).
To start, this week we learned from reports that for 18 years American military and national security leaders had been lying about progress in Afghanistan. As these reports are expanded on and more is published the Trump position that the war was a mistake – and we have lost thousands of lives, had tens of thousands severely wounded, spent over a trillion dollars and still have no plan for victory – will seem more and more wise.
The balance of the tension between the traditional military establishment and the Trump White House will shift more and more to the President's advantage. If next year the House and Senate armed services and foreign affairs committees hold serious hearings and dig into the degree to which senior officials in both parties simply lied to the American people, the resulting reforms may dramatically reshape how the United States operates in the world.
Second, the inspector general's report that the FBI has methodically lied about the Russian collusion case – and clearly broke the rules and the law in its effort to get President Trump — opens a new window on how sick the establishment bureaucracies and the deep state in both the Justice Department and the intelligence community truly are. The upcoming reports from United States Attorney John Durham will apparently open even bigger windows into just how dishonest, partisan, and sick the Justice Department has become. It is turning out that President Trump was telling the truth all along and his opponents were lying. This is a significant historic breakthrough.
The Horowitz Report went on to assert that everything Congressman Devin Nunes had reported about the FBI's activity was true, and everything Congressman Adam Schiff had said was a lie. The nation must confront the fact that the man Democrats chose to lead the impeachment inquiry is a proven liar. Every one of Schiff's Russian collusion assertions were found to be false by the inspector general.
This week, we also saw Speaker Nancy Pelosi's slip of the tongue (it can't have been deliberate) that she had been working on impeachment for two and a half years. This puts the entire impeachment process into such a blatantly dishonest and political framework that it guarantees historians will treat the House Democrats roughly. Historians will note the Democrats' willingness to undermine the Constitution and reduce the standard of impeachment from high crimes and misdemeanors to simply a question of a no confidence vote against a president they dislike. This admission of more than 30 months of effort to impeach President Trump (virtually from the time he won the election) will haunt every swing district Democrat who votes in favor of it. It also exonerates President Trump and makes clear he is in a political fight – not a legal one.
While the impeachment circus has been going on – and in spite of it – the Trump-McConnell team continued to set new records in approving federal judges in the Senate. President Trump, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's brilliant leadership of the Senate, will have appointed more than one fourth of the entire federal judiciary by the end of the year. Their insistence on younger judges means they will have shaped the judiciary as a conservative constitutional system for an entire generation. By itself this would justify a Trump presidency.
Across the Atlantic, the British election has three great advantages for President Trump. First, it gives him a political ally in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The speed during the night with which the President responded to the Johnson victory with talk of a US-UK free trade zone is a good signal of how comfortable President Trump feels with his equally tousle-haired colleague in No. 10 Downing Street.
Second, the depth of the Labour Party defeat (the worst since 1937) gives a big boost to the Trump campaign desire to paint the Democrats as being as strangely left as Jeremy Corbyn and the Labourites. On the other side, it has to really worry the non-extremist, centrist Democrats that continue to allow the radical left to define the Democratic Party, which could lead to a catastrophic outcome.
Finally, the style of Boris Johnson's campaign, with its constant sense of humor and refusal to take itself too seriously, is a good parallel to Trumpism.
This was a big week with big events. The news around the House Judiciary Committee may have been the most over-covered and least important of those events.
Historians may record that this was the week the Trump re-election became probable and the historic implications of the Trump commitment to reform began to be clear.
Tags: Newt Gingrich, Forget Impeachment, President Trump's Big Week To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Ralph Benko, The Capitalist League
by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." —H.L. Mencken
Ever wonder why Washington is stuck? It just can't seem to get a grip on adopting practical policies for the common good. The Constitution directs Uncle Sam to "promote the general Welfare." Instead he promotes a whole lot of Army generals and stokes a few welfare programs.
Welcome to the "warfare/welfare" state. But… why so?
Wonder no longer. Here comes John Tamny. He's an old Washington hand, editor of Real Clear Markets and a long time Forbes.com contributor who recruited me into 8 years of writing columns there. (Now, I'm here.) Tamny has distilled what he has learned into a new book, "They're Both Wrong: A Policy Guide for America's Frustrated Independent Thinkers."
It's my new secret decoder ring. Follow along.
Tamny nails both major political parties as engaged in scorched-earth hyperbole. Both parties are living inside of some kind of faith-based ideology. Or mania. Tamny, unsportsmanlike, introduces them to actual facts.
That politics has a lot of muggery is not exactly new news. Some of the wittiest, wisest, writers — Bastiat, Swift, Voltaire, Mencken, O'Rourke — made mincemeat of politicos. Tamny here joins this merry canon.
Actual score?
Politicos, 100.
Literary wits, 0.
Mencken's still my favorite:
"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary."Still, "Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for."
So, Tamny? Bring it on.
Tamny now joins in with the most enjoyable inventory of political folly in many years. Steve Forbes calls it a "must-read masterpiece" and O'Rourke says "Politics is the idea that all of society's ills can be cured politically. … Tamny argues that you're better off doing your own ideological home cooking."
So what does Tamny, say?
Basically, "Don't panic."
Things are not nearly as dire as the political class, and their handmaidens — the liberal media — would have you believe. The endless series of hobgoblins are, indeed, mostly imaginary.
So what hobgoblins does Tamny slay? Tamny is a sure-enough conservative, a center-right libertarian. Notwithstanding his conscientious efforts to even-handedly proclaim "a pox on both your houses" his right hook leaves bruises but his left hook doesn't leave enough of the left's arguments to bury. As myself a man of the right perhaps I am biased. But Tamny slays a slew of silly leftist pieties.
If you are a conservative (or libertarian) who enjoys merry argument between us Neanderthals and them Snowflakes you will find abundant ammo here. Those who relish drinking the tears of progressive snowflakes will find themselves exceptionally well hydrated.
Tamny summons powerful evidence that the left is showing poorly grounded hysteria over climate change, corporate myopia, tax policy, the minimum wage, and "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects. And much more. Conservatives get mocked for worship of Big Oil, idolatry of school choice, and deranged opposition to free trade and immigration (the latter two populist, not conservative, shibboleths). And more.
The solution? Tamny proposes the panacea of decentralizing government from the Big Uncle to the cities and states.
This does not go quite far enough. I have elsewhere called for the wholesale repeal of the Constitution and restoration of the Articles of Confederation (whilst keeping the Bill of Rights). The Articles were replaced by the Constitution because the powers of taxation and regulation they gave the federal government thought were too weak.
Back then the tiny former colonies were threatened by Old World imperialism. We needed a stronger central government. Now conservatives find Uncle Sam too big, feral, and overbearing. Time to return to America's original status as Swiss-style confederacy with a domesticated federal government. But yes, Tamny's distributing powers to the states and cities would be a step in the right direction.
Will it happen? Unlikely.
Withal I take solace from Mencken:
"I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. Does it exalt dunderheads, cowards, trimmers, frauds, cads? Then the pain of seeing them go up is balanced and obliterated by the joy of seeing them come down. Is it inordinately wasteful, extravagant, dishonest? Then so is every other form of government: all alike are enemies to laborious and virtuous men."John Tamny's "They're Both Wrong: A Policy Guide for America's Frustrated Independent Thinkers" will delight you. Even better, give it as a wonderfully mischievous holiday gift for that crazy progressive (but I am being redundant) uncle in your attic.
Ralph Benko is Chairman, The Capitalist League and contributor to the ARRA News Service. H/T NewsMax.
Tags: Ralph Benko, The Capitalist League, New Book, 'They're Both Wrong,' Takes, Political Folly, Both Parties To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Pastor Jeffress Says God Has Blessed America Because We've Stood With Israel
by Todd Starnes: Dr. Robert Jeffress, appearing on the Todd Starnes Show, praised President Trump for signing an executive order designed to cut off aid to universities that tolerate anti-Semitism.
"This is our message to universities: If you want to accept the tremendous amount of federal dollars that you get every year, you must reject anti-Semitism," Trump said when he signed the executive order.
Dr. Jeffress said the president is trying to bring healing to the nation by signing the historic order. But critics say it's a crackdown on free speech. Listen below to the entire interview.
"Universities have become hotbeds of anti-Semitism," Jeffress said on the Todd Starnes Show. "This executive order isn't an effort to control people's speech. It's saying under Title XI six that the government is not going to keep shoveling money to universities that promote this very dangerous belief."
Jeffress said anti-Semitism is not just wrong, but it's also evil.
"When people speak against Israel they are speaking against the people God calls the apple of His own eye," the pastor said.
He commended President Trump for being on the right side of history and the right side of God when it comes to Israel.
Todd Starnes (@toddstarnes) is A Christian Conservative, the host of Fox News & Commentary and heard daily on 250+ radio stations and on his iTune podcasts.
Tags: Todd Starnes, Pastor Robert Jeffress, President Trump To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
The Day the Congress Died
by Tom Balek, Contributing Author:
A long, long time ago I can still remember
How our Congressmen were honest guys.
The candidates all seemed so good,
Whoever got elected would
Try to keep our nation on the rise.
But then Obama got elected,
And crooked people were selected,
To redesign our nation –
Fundamental transformation.
I can't remember if I cried
When the brave men in Benghazi died
But a smell fell over the countryside
The day the Congress died.
Oh why, why do you Democrats lie?
Just because you hate our president you all voted "aye".
You insist on impeachment but you can't explain why,
Oh, this will be the day Congress died.
This will be the day Congress died.
Did you read the constitution?
Is impeachment really a good solution
If elections go awry?
And do you think that it's just fine
That the FBI got a judge to sign
A fakey FISA warrant so they could spy?
Well, the DNC and Hillary
Hired Fusion GPS to see
If they could build a scandal
That Trump's guys couldn't handle
So Fusion bought from Christopher Steele
A dossier that wasn't real.
Why did the judge believe that deal
The day the Congress died?
Why, why do you Democrats lie?
Now for three years they've investigated
And all of the Democrat haters hated
Especially on CNN . . .
Then for Schiff and Nadler and Pelosi
Things weren't looking quite so rosy
When "Russia, Russia, Russia" didn't win
Then the Mueller report was falling through
And the Ukraine phone call cratered too
They couldn't find corruption
So they came up with obstruction
And while Biden's kid was allowed to skate
Strzok and Page went on a date
And Nadler said "this can not wait!"
With Nancy running out of time
She got her Democrats in line
And set up her impeachment fight.
She knows that she's in trouble now
No witnesses or defense were allowed
With Trump's economic numbers out of sight.
And in the streets Trump's approval grew
There was nothing the Dems could do
The Senate and Mitch McConnell
Said they would support the Donald
The Democrats all hung their heads
As they realized their brand was dead
While Trump just laughed and shook his head
So why, why do you Democrats lie?
This will be the day Congress died.---------------------
Tom Balek is a fellow conservative activist, blogger, musician and contributes to the ARRA News Service. Tom resides in South Carolina and seeks to educate those too busy with their work and families to notice how close to the precipice our economy has come. He blogs at Rockin' On the Right Side
Tags: Tom Balek, Rockin' On The Right Side, The Day the Congress Died To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Impeachment Clears Committee, Britain Votes For Boris, How Dare You!
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Impeachment Clears Committee
This morning, the House Judiciary Committee voted 23-to-17, along party lines, to approve articles of impeachment against President Trump for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The vote came after a marathon hearing yesterday that went well into the night, and was abruptly shut down after 11:00 PM. The full House is expected to vote on the articles of impeachment next Wednesday at the earliest.
Maybe now Chairman Jerry Nodler (I know, it's really Nadler) can finally get some desperately needed sleep. He's fallen asleep twice during his own hearings in recent days.
He's not the only one not paying attention. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) was more interested in golf than impeachment. Meanwhile, Rep. Adam Schiff is taking impeachment so seriously, he went on Stephen Colbert's comedy show last night.
Democrats may not think impeaching the president is serious, but it is. They know they are tearing the country apart. Jerry Nadler said so himself!
Britain Votes For Boris
Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of Great Britain in 1979. A year later, Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States. The two leaders enjoyed a special relationship, just as our nations have over our long history. Together, Reagan and Thatcher lead the free world, defended free markets and brought down the Soviet Union.
Three years ago, in spite of all elite opinion and the polls, the British people said they were sick and tired of taking orders from Brussels and being unable to control their own borders.
They stunned the global establishment by voting for Brexit -- to leave the European Union. The vote cost Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposed Brexit, his job.
Not long after, in spite of all elite opinion and the polls, the American people stunned the establishment by voting for Donald Trump, who promised to put America First.
But for the last three years, British and American voters have been thwarted and resisted by elites on both sides of the Atlantic who think they know better than the people.
Like much of President Trump's agenda, Brexit was repeatedly blocked by left-wing progressives and rebel Tories who wanted to remain in the European Union. The impasse cost Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May her job.
Into this leadership void stepped the populist former mayor of London, Boris Johnson. He called for a snap election to break the gridlock. It worked.
Last night, British voters again defied the polls and elite opinion. They gave Johnson, who campaigned on the theme of "Get Brexit Done," the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher.
Some areas that had voted for the left-wing Labour Party since the 1930s swung to the Conservatives, who now control 365 seats in Parliament to 203 for Labour.
There are other parallels too. In Britain, there was something called "Independent Tories," meaning Conservative sellouts who refused to follow Johnson in support of Brexit. Here we have "Never Trumpers." Last night, every Independent Tory lost.
In many respects, Britain is now divided between those who want to be European and those who want to be British.
There was also something called the "shy Boris vote" -- voters who wouldn't tell pollsters they supported Johnson. Pre-election polls suggested this was going to be a cliffhanger. It wasn't even close.
I think something similar is happening in our polls as well. That was certainly the case in 2016, when most polls proved to be terribly wrong.
President Trump hailed Johnson's smashing win and promised to pursue a massive trade deal with the United Kingdom after Boris gets Brexit done.
Here's to hoping that Johnson's big conservative victory in 2019 heralds another big conservative victory in America in 2020, just like Thatcher and Reagan 40 years ago.
The Corbyn "Bullet"
It's worth noting that Britain just dodged a bullet -- a Marxist, anti-Semitic bullet.
In the closing days of the campaign, Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn was crisscrossing the country promising to nationalize virtually every major industry, radically expand the welfare state and raise taxes through the roof. To describe his platform as just socialism is a gross understatement.
Worse, Corbyn and his party have been dogged by anti-Semitism scandals for years. Several members of the Labour Party resigned earlier this year in protest. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and others have repeatedly warned against rising anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, and for good reason.
Corbyn once referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as "friends." He has also attended conferences with known terrorists, and even attended a wreath-laying ceremony for Palestinian terrorists.
Under Corbyn's leadership, the British government launched a hate crimes investigation of the Labour Party over dozens of alleged anti-Semitic crimes. Corbyn once even tried to downplay the significance of the Holocaust. (By the way, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez actually endorsed Jeremy Corbyn yesterday. Birds of feather flock together!)
Late last month, Ephraim Mirvis, Britain's chief rabbi, stunned many observers when he published a frank opinion piece warning against the rampant Jew-hatred that has become so prevalent within the Labour Party. His remarks were supported by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Church of England.
Last night's results were not just a win for Brexit, they were also a crushing defeat for Corbynism and a resounding rejection of anti-Semitism.
Corbyn announced last night that he would not lead the Labour Party in another general election, but that he intended to remain as the party leader during a "process of reflection." We'll see what happens in the days ahead, but there are growing calls for his immediate resignation.
How Dare You!
Time has named teenage environmental crusader Greta Thunberg as 2019's Person of the Year. Of course they did. It wasn't enough that we had to be lectured and shamed for stealing her dreams and ruining her childhood. Now we have to celebrate her too.
One person who isn't genuflecting to Saint Greta is President Trump. In response to Time's pathetic pandering, Trump tweeted:
"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"
The left is going crazy, of course. They are accusing the president of bullying a 16 year-old. That tweet wasn't bullying. In fact, Greta's parents should be giving her the same advice!
Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Impeachment Clears Committee, Britain Votes For Boris, How Dare You! To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
The (Sometimes) Bizarre Democratic Nomination Race
by Michael Barone: Some recent news stories verge on the bizarre -- the House Democrats' futile fuss over impeachment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's acceptance of President Donald Trump's U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade treaty. But they're not as bizarre, or possibly as consequential, as unanticipated developments in the Democrats' presidential nomination contest.
Consider the role of money, which Democrats are always saying plays too big a role in politics. This year, it plainly isn't. Their two billionaire late entrants, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, aren't running away with the contest.
Steyer is at 1.7% in the RealClearPolitics average, and Bloomberg's 5.5% surely owes as much to his formidable three terms as New York mayor -- and his groveling apology for his successful stop-and-frisk policy -- as his $30 million Thanksgiving week ad buy.
Internet technology has made big money less important. Twitter and Facebook are orders of magnitudes cheaper than TV ads, which used to be the only way to reach voters post-Iowa/New Hampshire. And the internet has enabled seemingly long-shot candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg to substantially outraise former Vice President Joe Biden, who relies on traditional Democratic big contributors.
If money doesn't work the way it did, neither do ethnic or racial identity. John Kennedy could count on Irish Catholic voters and Barack Obama on blacks; Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ran well with white Southerners back when they cast a big share of Democratic primary votes.
But this year, half of black Democrats, about one-quarter of primary voters, are supporting Biden, and only handfuls have supported the three black candidates. Sen. Kamala Harris ended her candidacy earlier this month. Sen. Cory Booker has bemoaned the lack of diversity among the candidates qualifying for the December debate (he's not one of them). Late entrant and former Gov. Deval Patrick has made no perceptible impact beyond canceling one Iowa event when only two people showed up.
Historically, black voters tend to give near-unanimous support for one candidate. It's a rational strategy if you identify as a member of a group systematically discriminated against, and black candidates have been among the beneficiaries.
But that impulse may be fading. The first black president has been elected and re-elected, one of only four presidents in the last century to clear 50% in two elections. Even as The New York Times' The 1619 Project argued that slavery was just as relevant as ever, many black voters may not feel as beleaguered or oppressed as in the past, particularly as black Americans' unemployment rate is a record low and blacks' incomes are rising faster than average.
Similarly, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro has not won significant support from Hispanics (a category invented by the Census Bureau in 1970). It's not clear what a part-time mayor of San Antonio has in common with Puerto Ricans in Florida, Dominicans in New York or Mexican Americans in California.
The third thing that seems bizarre, or at least surprising, about the Democratic race is that left-wing policies are proving not nearly as popular as media coverage of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal would suggest. Elizabeth Warren's embrace of and then backing away from "Medicare for All" is the prime example, and Tom Steyer's crusade against climate change is not winning votes from many of the Democrats who tell pollsters it's on their list of important issues.
In early debates and campaigning, Democratic candidates seemed eager to endorse left-wing policies -- a wealth tax, racial reparations, racial quotas and preferences, ninth-month abortions, open borders -- unlikely to appeal to majorities of general election voters. Now they seem more skittish. Policies advanced on the Democratic Twitterverse by clever young staffers but lacking any significant, popular yearning turn out to be duds.
This may be due to a disjunction between what animates the Democratic Party and its vision of what it once was. The Democratic Party, always a coalition of out-groups, is united these days by fear and loathing of the cultural style and populist proposals of Donald Trump. But the Democrats' self-image, rooted in history, is that of tribunes of the economically deprived, and they are drawn to advance redistributionist policies in the hope of regaining the working-class whites who were their largest constituency 50 years ago.
That hope is probably vain, and the result has pitted current Democratic constituencies against one another. Gentry liberals are attracted to Elizabeth Warren (but not her taxes) and Pete Buttigieg; seniors like Joe Biden; low-income Gen Zers and Hispanics (there's considerable overlap here) dig Bernie Sanders. And, undoubtedly, there are more surprises, maybe bizarre surprises, to come.
Tags: Michael Barone, Bizarre Democratic Nomination Race To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Where Are the 'High Crimes'?
by Patrick Buchanan: Nowhere in the articles of impeachment is "treason" mentioned. Nor is "bribery" or "extortion," the other crimes alleged. Where are the "high crimes" in this impeachment resolution? There are none.
"Quid pro quo" was the accusatory Latin phrase most often used to describe President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call asking for a "favor" from the president of Ukraine.
New Year's prediction: The Roman poet Horace's Latin depiction: "Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus" — "The mountains went into labor, and brought forth a mouse" — will be used to describe the articles of impeachment drawn up by Nancy Pelosi's House.
Article II is titled "Obstruction of Congress." What does it allege?
That Trump "directed the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives pursuant to its 'sole power of Impeachment.'"
Undeniably, there is truth here.
Trump did direct the Executive branch not to provide witnesses and documents subpoenaed by the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, both of which are partisan, pro-impeachment and chaired by unapologetic Trump-haters Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff.
But what the substance of Article II is really about is the eternal conflict between the first and second branches of the government over their respective rights and powers.
Such clashes are usually decided by the third branch, the Supreme Court. But Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff are unwilling to wait for the court to decide. They are declaring the issue decided and settled in the House's favor, and treating Trump's recourse to the courts as a new impeachable offense: "Obstruction of Congress."
Can Pelosi seriously expect a Republican Senate to convict and remove a Republican president for defending what that president is claiming in open court are the constitutional rights of the Executive Branch that he, as its present occupant and leader, is obligated to defend?
Trump would be derelict in his duty if he allowed a rogue House to run roughshod over the White House.
Consider Article I, "Abuse of Power."
The heart of this charge is that Trump briefly held up delivery of $391 million in "vital military and security assistance to oppose Russian aggression." So doing, Trump "compromised the national security of the United States."
Is the House serious? It was the Trump administration that began the transfer of the lethal aid — sniper rifles, Javelin missiles — that President Barack Obama had denied to Ukraine for three years.
If Trump's brief hold on a second tranche of lethal aid to Ukraine imperiled our "national security," was not Obama's yearslong denial of lethal aid to Ukraine a far greater peril to our national security?
Still, it is absurd to declare U.S. national security as threatened by a Russian presence in Crimea or in the Russian-speaking Donbass.
Russia has been in Crimea since Catherine the Great's reign in the 18th century. When FDR visited Yalta in Crimea in 1945, and when Richard Nixon visited Crimea during his 1974 summit, Ukraine was a Soviet republic ruled from Moscow.
When did a Russian presence or Russian flag flying over Crimea or Luhansk and Donetsk become a threat to U.S. national security?
Soon after the victory of Lenin's revolution, and from then, for seven decades, to the end of the Cold War, Ukraine was one of 15 Soviet republics.
When did Ukraine's territorial borders become a U.S. vital interest?
George H. W. Bush in 1991 implored the Ukrainians not to indulge a "suicidal nationalism" by declaring independence. Stay with Russia, said Bush. Was Bush 41 committing an impeachable act and imperiling U.S. national security?
Under the Constitution, a president shall be impeached and removed on conviction by the Senate of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
During the years of the Mueller investigation, Trump was accused of "treason," of being a Kremlin ally and asset.
With Trump, said Pelosi, "All roads lead to Putin!"
Yet nowhere in the articles of impeachment is "treason" mentioned. Nor is "bribery" or "extortion," the other crimes alleged. Where are the "high crimes" in this impeachment resolution? There are none.
Were the Democrats demagoguing? Did they have nothing to back up the charges of criminal conduct? Were the charges just designed to smear Trump, whom Democrats fear they cannot defeat in 2020?
Trump's offense is that he asked Ukraine's president to investigate the Bidens and Burisma Holdings, which paid son Hunter Biden $50,000 a month while Vice President Joe was the White House point man for rooting out corruption in Ukraine.
But if Trump had no justification for his suspicions about Joe and Hunter, why is the press corps traveling with candidate Biden demanding more answers than Joe seems prepared to give?
And is it truly impeachable to ask Ukraine's president to look into the smelly Biden-Burisma deal before being awarded an Oval Office meeting?
In Article I, Trump is accused of taking actions in Ukraine "that would help his election."
But when did it become a crime to consider the probable electoral consequences of decisions taken in foreign policy?
Admirers of JFK tell us he was ready to pull out of Vietnam, but only after the 1964 election, so as not to increase his vulnerability to the hawkish Republicans of the Goldwater era.
If true, was JFK guilty of impeachable inaction?
Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Boy, Have the Democrats Ever Overplayed Their Hand!
by David Limbaugh: If cosmic justice were to prevail, Democrats would drop their impeachment sham in confessed disgrace and move to give President Donald Trump a second term by acclamation for having ceaselessly abused their power in trying to nullify his first term.
Though cosmic justice won't prevail, the Constitution will, including its prescribed Senate check on impeachment and its provision for election of presidents through the Electoral College.
The Democrats have given new meaning to the term "overplaying your hand," and their witch hunt will continue to backfire. They will fail to remove Trump from office and, through their egregious overreach, will have probably ensured his re-election.
Given the timely release of the inspector general's report on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses, their bogus impeachment crusade has been further exposed as an appalling partisan travesty.
It cannot be repeated too often that the thrust of the Democrats' complaint against Trump is that he is a walking high crime and misdemeanor. They consider him so heinous that they needn't produce evidence of actual treason, bribery or other "high crimes." They've been trying to unseat him from the moment he was sworn in, and they're still trying, despite the failure of their previous efforts. Democrats talked of impeachment before he took office, and Democratic Reps. Al Green, Brad Sherman and Steve Cohen initiated a formal impeachment effort the first year of Trump's presidency.
These shysters have wanted to impeach him over his tweets, the Emoluments Clause, his tax returns, collusion with Russia to interfere with the election, obstruction of justice, quid pro quo, extortion, bribery and obstruction of Congress. They wasted weeks in formal impeachment proceedings, first in an underground Star Chamber in the House and then out in the open before the House Intelligence Committee. In those proceedings, the Democratic accusers paraded hearsay witness after hearsay witness to show that Trump had engaged in bribery in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In raising the Ukraine issue, they didn't even bother to prove Trump's intent; they unilaterally declared that it was to cripple his likely 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden, when in fact, it was more likely about Trump's desire for past Democratic corruption to be investigated.
But after putting half the country asleep in trying to make a painstaking case for "bribery" and enraging the other half, they came up with nothing, and so they told the country, in essence: "Never mind. Don't hold us to our monthslong charade alleging bribery. Just like all the other times when we were caught bearing false witness against this duly elected president, we're just going to find different words. But this time, we're going to use ones that you can't say are too narrow ('abuse of power')" — because they are meaninglessly vague.
Impeachment is a gravely serious remedy that the framers intended to be used sparingly and only when there was such a threat to the republic that a bipartisan effort would ensue. Here the Democrats don't even have a legitimate, non-serious basis; they have highly contested thirdhand evidence, and they have no bipartisan support. If their impeachment grounds were genuine, they wouldn't have changed them like fashion models change clothes.
Though they've been trying to impeach Trump for years now, his alleged actions hadn't even taken place when they began their efforts. House Leader Nancy Pelosi recently admitted that impeachment had been a Democratic project for 22 months — well before the notorious phone call with Zelensky.
Consider the richness of the Democrats' lusting for Trump's ouster over his alleged interference with an election when they have been trying to interfere with the 2016 election (and now the 2020 election) for three years. It would be outrageous enough if they had just endlessly mounted false charges against Trump via the impeachment process. But their political apparatus — the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign — coordinated with foreign actors and abominable, partisan crooks at the FBI to frame President Trump for conspiring with Russia. Can you even imagine what hell there would be to pay if Trump and the Republican National Committee had been accused of doing what these Democrats actually and undeniably did?
Moreover, Rep. Adam Schiff, his corrupt colleagues and their media co-conspirators ridiculed and demonized Rep. Devin Nunes for exposing this corruption. Schiff filed a report to refute Nunes' report, and they've been calling Nunes a liar and a kook ever since. But whatever games people want to play about Inspector General Michael Horowitz's disclaimer that he found no documentary or testimonial evidence of political bias (despite the plethora of emails and other real evidence of bias at the FBI), no sane person can deny that the IG report vindicates Nunes and exposes the sanctimonious Schiff as an unconscionable liar. Yet Schiff has quarterbacked this entire Democratic impeachment farce.
Horowitz's disclaimer as to discovery of bias is not only misleading because we know of undeniable anti-Trump bias at the highest levels of the FBI. It is also misleading because we are talking about matters far worse than bias. This was abject corruption. An FBI agent doctored evidence; the FBI tricked Trump into an interview disguised as a briefing; and high-ranking FBI personnel deliberately defrauded the FISA Court multiple times to incriminate a sitting president. This is stuff right out of a Robert Ludlum novel, and these Gestapo felons must be held to account.
One supposes that given the breadth and depth of their own corruption going to the very democratic processes they pretend to adore, the Democrats will keep ratcheting up the volume on their false claims against Trump, hoping, as usual, to dupe the voting public into restoring them to power in 2020.
But as I said, they've overplayed their hand. If justice prevails, they will rue the day they went down this sinister road, and Trump not only will not be removed; he will be reelected, and the Republicans will regain their majority in both houses of Congress.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is "Jesus is Risen: Paul and the Early Church." Follow him on Twitter& @davidlimbaugh and his website at davidlimbaugh.com.
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Swamp Creature - Comey . . .
. . . IG Horowitz says that Comey has NOT been vindicated in the IG report contrary to Comey's statement that he has been.
Tags: Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Swamp Creature, IG Horowitz says, Comey has NOT been vindicated, IG report, contrary to Comey's statement To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Party-Line Impeachment for Day-Time TV
. . . Jerry Nadler postponed a vote until this morning so Americans could watch.
by Nate Jackson: Donald Trump was inaugurated president 1,056 days ago, which, coincidentally, is exactly how long Democrats have been trying to impeach him. Well, if you don't include their rumblings before he even took office. Today brings a major marker: The House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 along party lines to advance two articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote next week.
That vote came after more political theater last night, as House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler abruptly ended a hearing and announced the committee would not vote until this morning. "It is now very late at night," Nadler declared shortly before midnight. "I want the members on both sides of the aisle to think about what has happened over these last two days, and to search their consciences before we cast their final votes. … Let history be our judge."
Hearing Democrats talk about "consciences" is pretty amusing.
Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the committee, complained that Nadler's move was a violation of the rules and "the most bush-league stunt" he had ever seen. Collins also aptly noted what really matters to Democrats: "They know it's all about games. It's all about the TV screens. They want the primetime hit." The flip side of that coin is that Democrats knew they couldn't hold a vote at midnight under the cover of darkness without leaving themselves open to new Republican attacks. Now they've set up the weekend TV talking heads while giving the rest of America a Friday news dump.
One major factor for Democrats in their delay is that there are 31 "moderate" Democrats who won districts Trump won in 2016. Most of them have declined to indicate how they'd vote when the full House takes up the issue. (Notably, the six Democrats who took the stage earlier this week to "somberly" announce impeachment articles were all from California and New York. (This is why we have the Electoral College.) Those 31 Democrats could be waiting for their own quid pro quo. What will their district receive in exchange for their impeachment vote?
Democrats can lose only 16 of their members and still succeed in impeaching Trump. They will almost certainly gain no Republicans, and the Senate is a virtual lock to acquit the president. So House Democrats are about to spend a lot of political capital on a losing proposition.
Footnote One: During Judiciary debate, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) named the alleged whistleblower, reported to be Eric Chiaramella. Gohmert rattled off a list of people who should have testified but were prevented from doing so by Democrats. Chiaramella was among them. Leftmedia outlets who name and make famous every mass shooter have stubbornly refused to name the whistleblower, though by reporting that Gohmert named him they've effectively confirmed it.
Footnote Two: The one thing members of both parties can seem to agree on is more spending. Congressional negotiators just announced a deal for $1.3 trillion in discretionary spending for 2020, avoiding a government shutdown for Christmas. Reason notes, "The deficit for fiscal 2019, which ended in September, was $984 billion. Total outlays clocked in at $4.447 trillion, with revenues reaching $3.462 trillion, both record amounts." Moreover, "The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is now projecting annual deficits in excess of $1 trillion in each of the next 10 years."
Nate Jackson is managing editor of Patriot Post.
Tags: Patriot Post, Party-Line Impeachment, for Day-Time TV, Jerry Nadler, postponed a vote until this morning, so Americans could watch To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Bernie Sanders Wants to Nationalize the Internet
. . . He claims more government control is the only "solution" to the "problem."
by Political Editors: It should come as no surprise that Bernie Sanders wants the government to control … well, just about everything — including the Internet. Yes, the socialist senator from Vermont has a plan dubiously entitled "High-Speed Internet for All." Too many Americans lack access to high-speed Internet, Sanders says, which is unacceptable for something he considers "a basic human right." ("Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Netflix"?) Sanders's plan would solve this "crisis" by classifying the Internet as a public utility, effectively giving Washington total control of a "publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband network."
So, how bad is this high-speed Internet crisis? Well, currently only 94% of people living in the U.S. have access to broadband. That might explain why the Federal Communications Commission doesn't see it as a crisis at all. Last year, the FCC concluded that "broadband services are now being deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis." Furthermore, rapid expanse of broadband services has come about almost entirely via private enterprise. Got that, Bernie?
In fact, far from quickly delivering broadband access to that remaining 6%, nationalizing the Internet would only serve to slow it down. As the Washington Examiner notes, "The unnecessary Obama-era internet regulation misleadingly dubbed 'net neutrality' led to a massive decline in private sector broadband investment during the brief period while it was in place. According to the FCC, 'In the following two years, after [net neutrality] was adopted, new developments dropped 55 percent.' But after its repeal, investment has ticked back up by a whopping $1.5 billion."
Leave it to socialists like Sanders to conjure up crises for which Big Government is the only solution.
Patriot Post political editors.
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Unfettered Capitalism
by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Lately politicians on both the left and the right have been criticizing capitalism. Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for "accountable capitalism." Senator Marco Rubio proposes what could be called "common-good capitalism." Senator Bernie Sanders proposes "democratic socialism as an alternative to unfettered capitalism."
By the way, they aren't the only ones using the term. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues in his book, A Bit of Everything, for a new social contract. He says we need to get rid of "the kind of selfish, unfettered capitalism" we have had for the last 40 years.
Jonah Goldberg, in a recent column, asks the same question I have been asking. "What on earth are these people talking about?" Decades ago, during the Progressive Era, presidents did all they could to restrain capitalism. Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts and Franklin D. Roosevelt created dozens of government restraints during the New Deal.
Jonah Goldberg then asks another good question. "If you think there are no restraints on the market or on economic activity, why on earth do we have the Department of Labor, HHS, HUD, FDA, EPA, OSHA, or IRS?"
Yes, our economy sometimes benefits certain people and organizations more than others. That isn't because of unfettered capitalism. It's due to the fetters government puts on certain sectors to the benefit of others. That's called crony capitalism. Laws and bureaucratic regulations benefit select businesses and industries in agriculture, manufacturing, banking, and a variety of other fields.
If you think the government needs to spend more or regulate more or tax more, then make your case for doing so. But let's stop arguing against the straw man of unfettered capitalism.
Kerby Anderson (@kerbyanderson) is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network (@PointofViewRTS) and is endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service.
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'The Law Is The Law': Virginia Democrats Float Prosecution, . . .
. . . National Guard Deployment If Police Don't Enforce Gun Control
by Kerry Picket: Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill say local police who do not enforce gun control measures likely to pass in Virginia should face prosecution and even threats of the National Guard.
After November's Virginia Legislature elections that led to Democrats taking control of both chambers, the gun control legislation proposed by some Democrats moved forward, including universal background checks, an "assault weapons" ban, and a red flag law.
Legal firearm owners in the state, however, joined with their sheriffs to form Second Amendment sanctuary counties, which declare the authorities in these municipalities uphold the Second Amendment in the face of any gun control measure passed by Richmond.
Over 75 counties in Virginia have so far adopted such Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions in the commonwealth, the latest being Spotsylvania County. The board of supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution declaring that county police will not enforce state-level gun laws that violate Second Amendment rights.
Virginia Democratic officials, however, already say local law enforcement supporting these resolutions will face consequences if they do not carry out any law the state Legislature passes.
"I would hope they either resign in good conscience, because they cannot uphold the law which they are sworn to uphold, or they're prosecuted for failure to fulfill their oath," Democratic Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly told the Washington Examiner of local county police who may refuse to enforce future gun control measures. "The law is the law. If that becomes the law, you don't have a choice, not if you're a sworn officer of the law."
Democratic Virginia Rep. Donald McEachin suggested cutting off state funds to counties that do not comply with any gun control measures that pass in Richmond.
"They certainly risk funding, because if the sheriff's department is not going to enforce the law, they're going to lose money. The counties' attorneys offices are not going to have the money to prosecute because their prosecutions are going to go down," he said.
McEachin also noted that Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam could call the National Guard, if necessary.
"And ultimately, I'm not the governor, but the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law," he said. "That's his call, because I don't know how serious these counties are and how severe the violations of law will be. But that's obviously an option he has."
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring blamed the numerous Second Amendment resolutions in the state on the "gun lobby" as a tactic to frighten state residents.
"The resolutions that are being passed are being ginned up by the gun lobby to try to scare people. What we're talking about here are laws that will make our communities and our streets safer," Herring told CBS 6.
Kerry Picket writes for the Washington Examiner, H/T Gun Dynamics!
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Why American Jews Slander President Trump
by Caroline Glick: The past week has clarified a lot of things about the state of the American Jewish community — and its antagonists.
The two assailants who walked into the kosher supermarket in Jersey City Tuesday and opened fire intentionally targeted the Jews. They killers belonged to the black supremacist, virulently anti-Semitic "Black Hebrew Israelite" movement which claims its members are the true children of Israel and the Jews are satanic imposters.
The shooting in Jersey City marked a predictable escalation of the anti-Semitic attacks being carried out against Orthodox Jews in the New York area. The focal points of the attacks to date have been the ultra-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn. Over the past two years, the frequency of the assaults has increased sharply. Most of them have been perpetrated by black anti-Semites. None have been carried out by white supremacist anti-Semites.
This is an important distinction because progressive politicians like New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and Senator Bernie Sanders routinely present the anti-Semitic violence in Brooklyn as the product of white supremacists.
And while it is true that to date, white supremacist anti-Semitism has been the most lethal form of anti-Semitism in America, from a political and social perspective it is poses a smaller danger to Jewish life in America than the three other forms of active anti-Semitism in America today: progressive/socialist anti-Semitism, Islamist anti-Semitism and black anti-Semitism.
These forms of Jew hatred pose a greater threat to Jewish life in America than white nationalist anti-Semitism for two reasons. First, whereas white supremacists are political orphans, with no political party willing to embrace them, progressive, Islamist and black anti-Semites are deeply embedded in the political left. Over the past 15 years, they have become powerful actors in the Democratic Party capable of bending the party to their will.
The second reason they pose a greater danger to Jewish life in America than white nationalists is because while socialist, Islamist and black anti-Semites will not cooperate with white supremacist anti-Semites, they are more than happy to work with one another to achieve their common goals. They cover for one another – as Sanders and De Blasio cover for the black anti-Semites in Brooklyn. They support one another, as both men embrace Islamist anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. Thursday Cong. Rashida Tlaib claimed that white supremacists were responsible for the attack in Jersey City.
The place where the three types of anti-Semites converge most powerfully and so present the greatest threat to Jewish life in America is on college campuses. In campuses throughout the U.S., Jewish Americans are compelled to keep their heads down or face abuse and harassment due to their common efforts to ostracize Jewish students and professors who fail to actively condemn Israel.
The most direct way to handle the problem is by applying the protections of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to Jews. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of color, race and national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance.
Over the past several years, Congress made several attempts to amend Title VI to include anti-Jewish discrimination. These efforts enjoyed broad bipartisan support. But they were all blocked by members of the progressive camp inside the Democratic Congressional caucus. Like the anti-Semitic boycott activists ostracizing Jews on campuses, the progressive lawmakers claimed that expansion of the protections of Title VI to include anti-Jewish discrimination would undermine the free speech rights of anti-Israel activists on campuses. That is, they said the rights of anti-Semites to preach anti-Semitism superseded the rights of Jewish students not to be harassed.
Wednesday, President Donald Trump put an end to this madness by signing an executive order requiring federal agencies dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism on campuses to consider the complaints in light the "working definition of anti-Semitism…by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance."
The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism was adopted by several governments and the State Department. It provides examples of manifestations of anti-Semitic behavior including "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor; applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism…to characterize Israel or Israelis; drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis;" and "holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel."
These are, of course, the standard practices of anti-Semites on college campuses and beyond. So by ordering the Federal government to use the IHRA definition as their framework for determining the validity of Title VI complaints of anti-Semitic discrimination on campuses, Trump provided Jews with the means they have lacked to defend themselves from that discrimination. He also carved a path to expose and fight the fastest growing and most politically and socially potent anti-Semitic forces in America.
Rather than report what he did, the New York Times seemingly deliberately mischaracterized Trump's actions.
In its Twitter feed, the New York Times reported Trump's action thus: "President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses."
This tweet was so off-base that it is impossible to view it as a mere misunderstanding by the paper of record for the liberal establishment. The assertion that Trump's move "defined Judaism" smacks of cultural appropriation, and as such, it sounds like an act of aggression against Jews.
By falsely claiming Trump defined Judaism as a nationality, the Times made it sound like Trump was saying that Jews aren't American nationals.
And by writing the purpose of the effort was to "stamp out 'Boycott Israel' movements on college campuses," rather than protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment, the Times made the order seem like a political ploy rather than a civil rights action long supported by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Liberal Jews pounced on the message and ran with it. Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America accused Trump of being "partially responsible" for the rise of anti-Semitism in America.
"If President Trump truly wanted to combat anti-Semitism," she said, "he would accept responsibility for his role in perpetuating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and emboldening white nationalism."
"We said it before and we'll say it again – Donald Trump is the biggest threat to American Jews," she added.
J-Street's executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami echoed the criticism of BDS advocates in Congress and on campuses by claiming that the executive order harms the free speech rights of anti-Israel activists. In his words, "The executive order, like the stalled congressional legislation it is based on, appears designed less to combat anti-Semitism than to have a chilling effect on free speech and to crack down on campus critics of Israel."
Undoubtedly, Soifer and Ben Ami were directing their statements towards the "a-political" Jewish establishment in the hopes of mobilizing them against the pro-Jewish executive order.
In the event, they failed. The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee both applauded Trump's executive order.
But Soifer and Ben Ami had grounds to think the ADL and AJC would join them in characterizing Trump's friendliness and support for Jewish people as anti-Semitism. Earlier this week they did.
Last Saturday night, Trump delivered the keynote address at the Israeli-American Council's annual conference in Miami. Trump's hour-long event was a love fest. Trump exuded warmth and respect towards his audience and towards Israel and they returned the sentiments.
He promised to fight anti-Semitism in America with the same energy with which he defends Israel and brought people onto the stage to outline the work the administration has done to combat anti-Jewish bigotry in America and throughout the world.
Yet, immediately after Trump completed his remarks, the floodgates of hatred opened up on him from the Jewish establishment. Everyone from Soifer to Jennifer Rubin from the Washington Post and Paul Krugman from the New York Times, accused Trump of delivering an anti-Semitic rant. The ADL and AJC jumped on the bandwagon and tweeted angry denunciations.
What was it that Trump said that made them so angry?
Trump said, "A lot of you are in the real estate business because I know you very well. You're brutal killers. (Laughter) Not nice people at all. But you have to vote for me; you have no choice. You're not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. (Laughter and applause.) You're not going to vote for the wealth tax. 'Yeah, let's take 100 percent of your wealth away.' No, no. Even if you don't like me; some of you don't. Some of you I don't like at all, actually. (Laughter.) And you're going to be my biggest supporters because you'll be out of business in about 15 minutes, if they get it."
The royal host of the American Jewish establishment hissed that in speaking thus, Trump reinforced the anti-Semitic stereotype that Jews love money.
Such twaddle.
As he said, Trump was addressing his fellow real estate developers in the crowd. He was talking to them as his friends and competitors, not as his enemies. When he said, "You're brutal killers" he was paying them a compliment. They understood, which is why they laughed.
Trump's claim that they would vote for him even if they didn't like him because they feared the Democrats' confiscatory tax policies is his standard line on Democratic tax policy. He says it to everyone, not just to Jews. The audience knew this too – which is why they laughed and applauded.
The Jewish establishment types joined the bandwagon and agreed Trump's playful, friendly statement was anti-Semitic because they want to believe Trump is an anti-Semite. If Trump is an anti-Semite then it's reasonable for them to remain loyal to the Democratic party which, led by "the squad" is leaping towards the anti-Semitic cliff that Britain's Labour Party jumped off when it elected Jeremy Corbyn its leader.
In other words, they slander Trump as an anti-Semite because they prefer their partisan interests to the interests of the Jewish community in America and the Jewish people throughout the world.
Luckily, as Trump's consistent record of support for Israel and the Jews in America and worldwide and as his warmth for Jewish people makes clear, the President doesn't have an anti-Semitic bone in his body. And he won't become an anti-Semite no matter how poorly the American Jewish establishment treats him.
Trump's Jewish critics said he was trafficking in anti-Semitic "tropes" when he told the IAC, that in the U.S. "you have people that are Jewish people, that are great people – they don't love Israel enough." But he was doing no such thing. He was telling the truth. Those Jewish people love neither Israel nor the children of Israel, the Jewish nation enough.
Thankfully, President Trump loves the Jews and Israel so much that he makes up for them.
Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post and the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com. First shared on IsraelHayom
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Joe Biden Claims He Marched To Protest Segregation; Where's the Proof?
by Larry Elder: Former Vice President Joe Biden remains the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination largely because of massive support from black voters. A CNN poll two weeks ago showed Biden ahead of his rivals at 28%, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at 17% and 14%, respectively.
Biden's support among black voters has been critical. About its poll, CNN writes: "Biden's averaged 49% among all potential black Democratic primary voters in our last two CNN national polls. That's good enough not only for a 35-point lead over his Democratic competitors, but good enough to beat all of them combined by about 10 points." Biden, who prides himself on his relationship with black voters, clearly benefits from his eight years of service to the popular Barack Obama.
But do most blacks know that for decades Biden has bragged about "marching" and "protesting" to fight to "desegregate movie theaters and things like that" — and that there is zero evidence of any of this?
Campaigning in Iowa last week, Biden said: "Well, I got my education … in the black church. Not a joke — because when we used to get organized on Sundays to go out and desegregate movie theaters and things like that, we'd do it through the black church. I got to admit to you I'd go to my Catholic mass at 7:30 first, and then I'd show up in the black church." It's a narrative, or the latest version of a narrative, he has pushed for decades.
In 1983, at the New Jersey Democratic Convention, Biden said: "When I was 17, I participated in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and movie houses. And my stomach turned upon hearing the voices of (Arkansas Democratic Gov. Orval) Faubus and (Alabama Democratic Gov. George) Wallace. My soul raged upon seeing (Birmingham, Alabama Commissioner of Public Safety) Bull Connor and his dogs." He ended his speech by wiping tears from his eyes. The Baltimore Sun interviewed Biden in 1986 and reported, "As a young man, he took part in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants along U.S. 40 in Delaware." A Morning News article in September 1975 said that Biden "joined in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants along U.S. 40 before he joined the Senate." In February 1987, at the California Democratic convention, Biden repeated, "When I was 17 years old, I participated in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and movie houses of Wilmington, Delaware."
A few months ago, The New York Times wrote: "In … 1987 … more than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement. And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood — and kept telling the story anyway." According to an article in The Atlantic: "By September 1987, his campaign press secretary clarified to The New York Times that Biden 'did participate in action to desegregate one restaurant and one movie theater.' Or as Biden once explained at a 1987 news conference, he'd been concerned about civil rights as a teenager, but he 'was not out marching.'"
But is there even evidence of Biden's more modest assertion? Not according to the conservative Washington Examiner: "Civil rights activists in Wilmington and the University of Delaware while Biden was a student said they don't recall him participating in any demonstrations. A historian who wrote a book about the Route 40 Project (referring to the action to desegregate restaurants along that route) and the Freedom Riders movement said he was unaware of Biden's involvement. …
"At the University of Delaware, where Biden was a freshman, a group called the Student Committee Against Discrimination was taking the lead on Route 40-related demonstrations. … One of the group's leaders, Duane Nichols, a graduate student at the time, told the Washington Examiner that he compiled the list of segregated restaurants that CORE targeted along Route 40. He said he does not recall Biden participating in protest activities."
Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, lied, claiming she was black, and became a chapter head of the NAACP. Sen. Warren falsely called herself a Native American before admitting that she was not. As to Biden's repeated, unverified claims of having battled segregation as a teenager, when can we expect the left-stream media to apply Trump-like scrutiny? If the media won't, Trump will.
Larry Elder (@larryelder) is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host, an American lawyer, writer and radio and television personality who is also known as the "Sage From South Central." To find out more about Larry Elder. Visit his website at LarryElder.com for list of other articles.
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list of women's health organizations
Return to Learn > Science and Research > Research Resources > Research Centers and Organizations that Support Women's Health. © 1996-2020 Everyday Health, Inc. Healthy women can stay that way by getting the latest advice for protecting against disease and, when facing a health condition, the latest treatments for conquering it. The Foundation focuses on a broad range of women's rights issues, including economic justice, pay equity, racial discrimination and women's health … This women's organization is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office on Women's Health (OWH) — created in 1991, the OWH has a mission to encourage the health of girls and women. We are putting a great emphasis on the fact that this list … Whether your goal is to stay healthy or to learn all you can about a health condition, these women's health organizations can help. birth. The coalition also helps women in developing nations to become empowered and educated about their health and works to create and enforce public policies regarding women's health. ACOG works to promote awareness of women's health issues and to support obstetricians and gynecologists. Lack of maternity care providers and no guaranteed maternity leave were cited as potential causes. Social Service Organizations Community Organizations Marriage, … Their large networks of physicians, clinics, laboratories and hospitals, combined with freedom to choose specialists, facilities and primary care physicians without referrals have made preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, popular among those who dislike restrictions. Its Web site provides education about women's health issues, including sexual and reproductive health topics and treatments. The following women's health organizations address a wide range of women's health issues — from sexual and reproductive health to the major illnesses affecting women today like cancer and heart disease. How Many Black Health Organizations Exist? Return to the Women's Health Awareness Center. Health nonprofits cover a broad range of organizations concerned with the body or mind. Hundreds of Black health organizations exist throughout the country. Six evidence-based practice papers promoting, protecting and supporting The NWHF is a non-profit women's organization with a goal of making reproductive women's health care available to any woman who needs it, regardless of her ability to pay for treatment. These organizations represent a sample of the organizations listed in our expansive on-line database. This nonprofit tackles education discrimination among young women in … Fortunately, many organizations are dedicated to improving the vulnerable health situation which many people are facing every single day. This women's organization is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office on Women's Health (OWH) — created in 1991, the OWH has a mission to encourage the health … Most black health organizations … The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization. • Alliance of Pan American Round Tables – founded 1916 to foster women's relationships throughout the Americas The International Women's Health Coalition advances the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls worldwide. Our mission is to empower and support nurses caring for women, … Read More issues Learn about IWHC's priority areas, including women's … Issues. commonly prescribed to women. Women's Health Center of West Virginia is a nonprofit health center providing a full range of reproductive health services and gynecological care ranging from abortion and birth control to cancer … A new study found that taking hormonal contraceptives may have a small protective effect on severe cases of asthma in reproductive-age women. The organizations listed below provide information to all regardless of race and ethnicity but their … promote normal birth. Grants and organizational resources are available to birth Its mission includes promoting self-esteem among young women and teaching them how to prevent pregnancy, rape, and sexually transmitted diseases, and how to make appropriate and healthy decisions. Often treated as simply women's reproductive health… Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". resources Read IWHC's latest reports, policy briefs, and fact sheets to learn more about our fight for gender justice. This women's organization works to create policies that enforce women's rights and make women's health a priority in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) - A group of more than 30 nonprofit organizations … Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative. with Lamaze The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was established in 1951 and is a non-profit organization made up of obstetricians, gynecologists, and other health care professionals who provide care and treatment for women. The National Organization for Women Foundation ("NOW Foundation") is an organization devoted to achieving full equality for women through education and litigation. The website includes information about the initiative, resources and news. birth also are available on the website. According to two separate estimates, aid from international health organizations in the developed countries pays for less than 5% of the total health … National Organization-Women. Reproductive health: Sexual and reproductive health problems are responsible for one third of health issues for women between the ages of 15 and 44 years. 200 Independence … By subscribing you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Resource for trusted information on The World Health Organization collaborates with academic institutions, UN agencies, and nonprofit … The National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC). Ste. networks to website. But, to a large extent, underlines how much help is needed all over the globe. Introduction. The NWHIC provides up-to-date information on a number of women's health issues through pamphlets and its Web site, where you can ask a question or make a comment. Sign up for our Women's Health Newsletter! PPO participants pay a co-pay of $10 to $30 for office visits, according to eHealthInsurance, and usually pay a deductible for out-of-network services before PPO … institute provides Improving Women's Health … You'll find information on more than 800 women's health issues, as well as statistics and resources for women who need help, and all of it is free. Health. Gender analysis in health often highlights how inequalities disadvantage women's health, the constraints women face to attain health … It works with political leaders and business leaders to promote funding for women's health issues and women's rights, as well as offering its own monetary grants. Childbirth Connection (formerly Maternity Center Association), International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. (ICAN), International Planned Parenthood Federation, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention: Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME). 1230 Silver Spring, MD 20910, Research Centers and Organizations that Support Women's Health, Illinois Department of Public Health: Women's Health, Coalition for Improving Maternity Services. professionals. Information regarding normal birth can be found on this The NWHF offers funding to clinics across the United States that provide women's health care so that women who cannot afford a doctor visit can still get the attention that they need — whether during pregnancy or just an annual gynecologist exam. Coming Clean, Inc. Coming Clean is a collaborative of environmental health … conjunction The list is not exhaustive. A federal government website managed by the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Africa; Americas; South-East Asia; Europe; Eastern Mediterranean; العربية; 中文; English; français; русский The Supreme Court ruled that employers can refuse to offer birth control coverage as mandated by the Affordable Care Act if they have religious or moral... Count the Kicks, a prevention program, may spare some families from late pregnancy loss. This organization works in Many aim to assist African Americans in local cities, but there are several national organizations as well. International to empower women and providers to pursue normal SCHOOL GIRLS UNITE. 8403 Colesville Rd. ACOG also advocates for better health care for women, making sure that physicians are held to high clinical standards. Hospitals, substance abuse and additional treatment programs, diseases and disease research, medical disciplines and specialty research, and mental health … Unsafe sex is a major risk factor – particularly among women … Everyday Health is among the federally registered trademarks of Everyday Health, Inc. and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. Almost the entire cost of health care in the developing world is borne by the developing countries themselves. Compared With Other Countries, Research Finds, Sex and Sex Drive in Midlife: News From NAMS 2020, 5 Things to Know About This Summer's Birth Control Ruling, Monitoring In Utero Movements May Help Prevent Stillbirths. A national multi-disciplinary organization whose mission is to protect the developing child from environmental health hazards and promote a healthier environment. Whether you have questions about disease prevention or you want to get educated after a diagnosis, women's organizations offer extensive resources online. National Women's Health Foundation (NWHF). Birth Control Pills May Reduce Risk of Severe Asthma, Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Postpartum Are More Dangerous in the U.S. This For more women's health organizations, see this international directory that includes the Jean Hailes Foundation, a leading resource based in Australia, and the World Health Organization's division of women's health. The National Women's Health Network improves the health of all women by developing and promoting a critical analysis of health issues in order to affect policy and support consumer decision-making. Global Health Council - The leading membership organization supporting and connecting advocates, implementers and stakeholders around global health priorities worldwide. The way power is distributed in most societies means that women have less access to and control over resources to protect their health, and are less likely to take part in decision-making. How women value sex as they age, and why low-libido treatments are not available, were among the themes explored at the annual menopause meeting. A comprehensive directory of professional nursing organizations from the #1 hospital review site & largest job board for nurses. The Intersection of Maternal Morbidity and Mortality and Intimate Partner Violence in the United States, Current Women's Health Reviews, 2020; The role of gynecologists in screening older women for … normal evidence-based resources for new and expectant parents and childbirth Webinar: The Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court: 2020 Election and Women's Health HealthyWomen Joins National Health Organizations in Letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar About … The Ultimate Guide to Health and Happiness, Don't Just Sit There: A Little Exercise Makes Up for a Full Day of Sitting, FDA Watch: Monoclonal Antibody Treatments for COVID-19, Preventive Flu Medication, and an Anti-Nightmare Device Get the Go-Ahead, Tippi Coronavirus: Tips for Living With COVID-19. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Research Centers and Organizations that Support Women's Health Cancers Cancer Clinical Services Quality Assurance Project The website is geared toward primary care clinicians and other health care … The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) is a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to improve and promote the health of women and … Women's health refers to the health of women, which differs from that of men in many unique ways. Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL): This dynamic organization works to boost the … When it comes to your health, staying healthy means staying informed. WHO Regional websites. the possible reactions and risks associated with prescription drugs; some
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Рада Білоруської Народної Республіки, Рада БНР () — вищий керівний орган БНР. З 5 січня 1919 року діє в екзилі.

Первинно було створено Раду І Всебілоруського конгресу. До її складу входили члени Виконавчого комітету Ради конгресу. Згодом до складу ради було включено представників мінського самоврядування та національних меншин. Після цього її чисельність сягнула 71 члена.

Після проголошення незалежності Білорусі у 1991 році Рада БНР планувала передати свої повноваження новій легітимній білоруській владі. Але після того, як у 1994 році президентом Білорусі став Олександр Лукашенко, Рада не стала цього робити. Причини: авторитаризм нової влади, порушення прав людини, продовження русифікації всіх сфер життя.

Старшини (голови) Ради БНР
 Ян Середа (9.3-14.5.1918)
 Язеп Льосік (14.5.1918 — 13.12.1919)
 Пьотра Крачевський (13.12.1919 — 1928)
 Василь Захарка (1928–1943)
 Микола Абрамчик (1944–1970)
 Вінцент Жук-Гришкевич (1970–1982)
 Язеп Сажич (1982–1997)
 Івонка Сурвіла (з 1997)

Див. також
 Об'єднаний перехідний кабінет Білорусі

Примітки

Посилання
 Офіційна сторінка

Література
 Гардзіенка, А. Беларускі кангрэсавы камітэт Амэрыкі (БККА) / Алег Гардзіенка. — Смаленск: [б.в.], 2009.
 Максімюк, Я. Аднаўленьне Рады БНР пасьля Другой Сусьветнай вайны // Запісы = Zapisy. — 2001. — № 25. — С. 41 — 48.

Рада БНР
Білоруська Народна Республіка
Уряди у вигнанні

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Del Walmsley Radio Show
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A version of feijoada from Northeastern Brazil. Feijoada is a dish made throughout Brazil, and there are many versions, but this recipe is the most common 'day-to-day' version you'll encounter in backyard barbeques and birthday parties in the Northeast.
1 Combine beans, onion, ham, calabresa, 3 cloves garlic, salt, cumin, black pepper, and bay leaf in a pressure cooker; cover with water to fill line.
2 Close cooker securely and place pressure regulator over vent according to manufacturer's instructions. Cook at high pressure until regulator is gently rocking, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce pressure to low. Cook, adding water halfway if needed, until beans are tender and water is reduced to your liking, about 1 hour.
3 Turn off heat. Let pressure release naturally according to manufacturer's instructions, about 5 minutes. Unlock lid and remove. Let feijoada cool until ready to serve.
4 Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute remaining 1 clove garlic and collard greens until just tender, about 2 minutes.
5 Place cassava flour in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until toasted, about 3 minutes. Stir in butter.
6 Serve feijoada with the collards-garlic mixture, toasted cassava flour, rice, orange wedges, and cilantro.


This post is by way of celebrating several things that happened today beginning with the 2 mile run along the Canal. Due to various events taking place this weekend, only Caitlin and I were at the starting line this morning. I thought it was going to be a solo performance and I rolled up early, for a change, yet something stayed my feet as I waited and waited not knowing what the time was and not knowing why I was waiting until I looked up and saw someone running overhead on the bridge looking down.
Company changes things. It turned from a solo jog into a situation where I had to try my best. It usually turns out that way anyway but now there's an independent witness. It wasn't a competition, I wasn't racing Caitlin but she helped bring that something to the fore a little quicker. I ran 14:28 and Caitlin ran 20:03 a little slower than last week but as I haven't been running much lately, anything will do.
The other thing is that this blog has moved today from its old stomping ground in a sub directory as a separate instance of WP to its new location – its own subdomain on Multidays.com. Its hard to figure out how many people actually read this poor specimen of a blog but now the website has the capacity to create blogs I am extending an offer to runners who would like to keep a free running blog – sign up and create their own space on Multidays.com.
Last weekend I managed three 20 km runs in 3 days two at Ashton Court and one out along the BBC with Suswara. Since then I haven't made it out which should be of some concern as I have signed up for the Gothenburg 6 day race in Sweden. The race is free to non-Scandinavians which is how I am able to go and of course thanks to Ryanair for their cheap flights. The race starts on August 30th at 09:00 and some great runners have signed up and will be great to chat with.I made a post on the front page of multidays.com. Pam Storey will be going as well. It will interesting to see how she gets on.
Assuming I make it to the start, this will be my first 6 day race and something I have been wanting to do for some time so I am looking forward to next Saturday.
I discovered my best 6 day split is 584 km but I have no idea if I will be able to run myself into shape enough to top that. I would be very happy with 360 miles right now.
Last Sunday the whole house ventured to Salisbury along with Cardiff compatriots Garga and Kokila to make a Sri Chinmoy Athletics Cub outing and we all ran the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 20 km race – all bar Garga who's injured at the moment. Nice morning turned out to be quite hot as we set off under clear skies to run on trails and roads around the old town of Salisbury, famous for the proximity of Stonehenge which lies on Salisbury Plain, 8 miles to the north.
Kokila warned at the start to take as much water as was available at the aid stations and by the time we had climbed Old Sarum I was wishing I had brought my hydration pack as it was really warming up. The trail at that point was a foot-wide narrow rut and was a great opportunity to run in my North Face Voza shoes that I am currently reviewing and I had no problems with any feet issues.
The course runs along public footpaths and roads, bridleways and even (possibly) some private land. Every now and again the hedge would shrink and we were treated to some beautiful Wiltshire landscapes. The great weather enhanced the feeling that this was indeed summer… after all the recent rain and the greeness of life was tangible especially in the shaded section before and up to the 6 mile checkpoint. Coming down off the ridge the course came back into Salisbury along some water ways, idyllic scenes especially at one large castle like property that we came to after crossing a small bridge across a river full of lillies and a pair of swans.
I had started out a little faster than I should have and I guess I slowed a little as in the last quarter, 4-5 people went past me looking very strong but I hung on getting a little disoriented in the last mile but finished chasing a team from Totton RC, just edging the two ladies in a time of 2:00:27, good enough for 50th spot and 3rd in my category. Mark came home first in the team with 01:49:29, 24th overall. Suswara had a spectacular result with a time of 02:02:53 and somehow coming in first place in his category, LV35 and 12th female overall!! He still hasn't explained how he managed it. Kokila had a great run finishing in 02:37:54 and still smiling. However Kokila also was involved in transgendering as she was listed as MV40, 80th in "his" category.
Afterward we decided to get a shower in the Leisure Centre, conveniently located nearby and I realised I had not brought my towel due to a lost wallet situation prior to departure. However, shower was imperative and worry about drying afterward so jumped in and cleaned up and the only thing I felt I could use was my cotton socks. It worked!!! Hard to believe but I managed to dry myself with a pair of cotton ankle-quarters. Then I wrang them out, put them on with my sandals and sat in the sun for half an hour having a post race picnic and by the time we'd had coffee and got back to the car, they were dry again. I love cotton socks.
Last Sunday squeezed another 20 miler in on the BBC. Bitton is the goal and this week was not as hot as last. Last week I blew up on the way home just coming out of the Staple Hill tunnel – a 45 minute run home. This week with a slower but steadier, more relaxed pace I arrived home just a little bit tired but not completely wiped out as I have been feeling recently.
So this makes it three 20 milers in a row which is something to be happy about though weekly mileage is still very low.
Yesterday morning, Sunday June 28th, was a reminder of where I am and what is going on in my running life at the moment.
I had been wanting to get out earlier on Sunday mornings to take advantage of the peace to be found at this time of the day before most of the locality has woken up and begun to engage the world. Also because of the warmer temperatures it is much cooler earlier in the day and thirdly, the traffic gets heavy later in the day with many users cycling solo, as families and as groups.
Saturday I like to prepare for the long Sunday run by hydrating and by having a large carbohydrate meal late in the evening. I ate a pasta meal early evening and not really much earlier in the day to build reserves and also forgot to drink extra.
Sunday morning after a late night watching the delights of Glastonbury on tv and working on the laptop, I got ready hurriedly with less than 4 hours sleep in the bank, not eating anything before we left or drinking more than half a cup of water.
Bristol is not a flat city. Built on the banks of the tidal river Avon, there have been people here since the Old Stone Age – some 60,000 years ago there were people living near here and to get almost anywhere in the city, apart from a north-easterly direction is going to involve some hills.
There are a few races that take advantage of some flat land – the recent 5k around the harbour and the Towpath series and of course my beloved Bath to Bristol cycleway, the BBC. Mostly though its hills that slope down to the river. Heading west the river passes through the Avon Gorge on its way to the Bristol Channel underneath the spectacular suspension bridge, an icon in the landscape. The bridge lies just to the east of the Downs which are a high point which everyone has to climb from somewhere to reach except for those lucky few people who live on the east side.
Its around here that I come to run if I am not heading out on the BBC, a loop around the downs and then over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and up to Ashton Court. There is a Golf course through which a bridle path has been made which goes up to the southern boundary of the grounds near a quarry and then passing around the quarry and re-entering the park one can run along bike trails through the woods.
In September there is a 10 km race here, the Ashton Court 10 km and the grounds are a pleasure to absorb.
Heading home via the Downs I was feeling stronger than I had for some time and as my weight is about 180 lbs – a little lighter than normal.
This was a two hour run yesterday and even though there were two hills that I attacked and subsequently felt, I was happy with how it went and look forward to developing this base over the summer.
Disappointed at not being able to get to new York for the 3100 this year. That's life I guess.
Haven't really done much running since October. There were the two mile races in Canada and the Ottawa Hyperthermic Half and a few runs here and there but not much really until the last week or so in Vancouver. Now I'm back in Bristol but not in as good a shape as Mark. Last week I made it to Warmley on the Bristol to Bath Cyclepath (BBC) – about 16 miles and I felt close to my limit there.
Yesterday went to Bitton and back which is 20 miles and again felt close to the edge and was tired for the rest of the day but happy to have done 20 and not feeling any semi-injuries. Today was a rest day – I seem to be running pretty much every other day at the moment. As I get back out there everyday I will start to record the mileage again.
With the first summer off for 6 years I will be enjoying shorter runs and indeed have been up on the Downs looking at the Welsh hills to the West along the Clifton Gorge. I havent planned anything yet but there is a 6 day in Sweden not to far away and also would like to be in good shape to run the Self-Transcendence 24 hour in Tooting Bec in October but, as I said, nothings planned yet.